A suburban Chicago man was charged Tuesday with threatening to publish sexually explicit photos of an underage girl unless she created child pornography for him.
This indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr., Northern District of Illinois, and Special Agent in Charge James M. Gibbons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
David J. Cottrell, 28, of Niles, Illinois, is charged with two counts of transporting child pornography, one count of extortion, one count of inducing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, one count of attempting to produce child pornography, one count of producing of child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.
According to the indictment and the government’s memorandum in support of detention, Cottrell in 2014 induced the underage victim into sending him sexually explicit photos through the internet.
After collecting semi-nude photos of the victim, Cottrell informed her that he knew her real name, the name of her school, and her parents’ jobs, and he threatened to post the images online and send them to her family unless the girl sent him additional, more explicit images, the government’s memorandum states.
The victim complied with Cottrell’s demands by creating and sending additional photos and videos to him, the memorandum states.
Cottrell contacted the victim on a near-daily basis until her parents discovered the messages in 2017 and contacted law enforcement, according to the memorandum.

A former law school student from north suburban Niles is facing federal charges alleging he extorted and terrorized a young teenage girl for more than three years by threatening to expose her if she didn’t send him pornographic videos of herself on a nearly daily basis.
David Cottrell, 28, forced the girl to comply with his every demand, including staying up late on school nights to act out pornographic “scripts” for him and leaving her middle school classes at times to take nude photos of herself in the bathroom, prosecutors alleged in an 18-page filing.
“One bad move and ur parents get a letter from concerned parents about their daughter distributing porn to other children,” Cottrell allegedly messaged to the victim, who was 13 at the time. . . .
Cottrell has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
His lawyer, Kenneth Yeadon, could not immediately be reached for comment, but in a recent court filing, Yeadon said Cottrell has “lived a quiet life” at home with his parents despite knowing he was a target in the investigation. Cottrell has lived in Niles all his life except while attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison as an undergraduate and law school at New York University in Manhattan, Yeadon said.
Cottrell left law school in 2017 to return to Niles, Yeadon said. Until he was taken into custody, he had been taking classes to finish his law degree and working at his father’s public accounting practice in Park Ridge, Yeadon said. . . .
According to prosecutors, Cottrell met the victim — identified as Minor A — in an online chat site when she was in 7th grade and he was attending law school in New York. In later conversations over Snapchat, Cottrell asked the girl to send him nude photos of herself, according to the prosecution filing. She did so “thinking she was anonymous,” authorities said.
In fall 2014, Cottrell told Minor A he knew her real name, address, her parents’ and sister’s name, where her parents worked and the middle school she attended. He started threatening the teen, saying he would “post her photos on the internet and send them to her family” if she didn’t comply with his demands for more material, prosecutors alleged. . . .
Several times, Cottrell made Minor A leave class during school to take a photo of herself in the bathroom, prosecutors alleged. In one instance in October 2016, Cottrell messaged the girl while she was in math class, telling her, “I f—— own you and don’t tolerate disobedience,” prosecutors said.
The extortion continued until July 2017 when the girl’s parents found Cottrell’s threats on her phone and contacted law enforcement, according to prosecutors. When agents searched the phone, they found a five-minute video she’d made for Cottrell just two days earlier.
“Three and a half minutes into the video, Minor A starts crying as she is forced to perform for the defendant,” prosecutors wrote.